Somebody's been left out of the loop and will not be getting the DLC share for Bethesda's Fallout 3 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC). And while analysts are quick to give their opinion as to why Sony's PS3 was not counted when the DLC goodies were being given out, Bethesda itself is keeping mum.

After GTA4, you'd think this hullabaloo would be over. But it isn't. Analyst Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital says that new developments over the proposed buyout of Take-Two Interactive would come next week, and that Electronic Arts would likely have something new to add to their offer.

The country may be experiencing some economical doldrums, but the gaming industry shows promise that not only will it keep rolling, it will even roll better and rake cash in the process. Several analysts even admit that they have greatly underestimated the industry's performance for this month. Read more in the full article!

Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian has predicted that February video game software sales will be up by 25 percent. Even better is the fact that he sees even better sales figures in the coming months because of an impressive line-up of games from various publishers. If you want to find out more, head on over to the full article.

As the first month of 2008 ends, analysts are sending in their forecasts and predictions of what they expect to happen this year. Some say the gaming industry will bloom during the first half, others say it's going to be an epic year of epic games. Find out what DFC Intelligence and Lazard Capital Markets' Colin Sebastian think at the full article.

Just because a company is down doesn't necessarily mean that a company is out. As analysts Michael Pachter and Colin Sebastian have pointed out, THQ's underperformance in 2007 is "a painful step" to a more successful showing in the future. Fellow analyst Arvin Bhatia concurs, and he has his own words of encouragement for THQ.

You can read more about them in the full article after the jump.

Now that almost all of us have consoles and handhelds, it's time to go out and grab more games. Analyst Colin Sebastian says that this premise will lead to an unprecedented industry sales total of US$ 10 billion in 2008. Will his prediction hold out? Judging by the amount of grade-A content coming out this fiscal cycle, it's a safe bet. More details in the full article.

Despite THQ's under-performance for this quarter, analysts Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan and Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Market remain optimistic for the game developer studio and maintains that the company's stock is still a "buy."

THQ's revenue for this quarter was significantly lower than their initial forecast, owing to the lack of sales of two of their games in the market: Stuntman: Ignition (PS2, PS3, 360) and Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360, PC, DS). This, however, did not deter Pachter who, despite lowering his estimates for THQ, says that this is not likely to happen again.

Sebastian shares the same sentiments, saying that THQ's 2009 lineup seems to be a "significant improvement," mentioning their next Pixar video game adaptation of Wall-E, Saints Row 2 and the sequel to Red Faction. He predicts that the video game for Wall-E will do much better than their Ratatouille saying: "Stated simply, robots are cuter than rats, and make for better video game fodder."

THQ has announced earlier that they will be lowering their fiscal Q2 revenue guidance from US$ 240 million to US$ 229 million, and full-year sales of US$ 1.12 billion to US$ 1.06 billion.

It's the general consensus among analysts that Electronic Arts' acquisition of BioWare and Pandemic Studios was a wise move. One of the more popular analysts from Wedbush Morgan, none other than Michael Pachter, also predicts that the US$ 800 million purchase will pay off.

With the purchase of the two developers, Electronic Arts boosts their already solid reputation with "several games in development, six owned franchises, and 800 quality employees." Pachter believes that EA "has finally demonstrated the thinking behind its huge cash accumulation" with the purchase. (EA has nearly US$ 3 billion in cash.)

Pachter continues that if the companies continue with the quality of their past performance then "EA will likely achieve its goal of US$ 300 million in annual revenue." Not bad, not bad at all. Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets and Todd Greenwald of Nollenberger Capital Partners demonstrate the same confidence in EA, if not as strongly as Pachter does.

One analyst though, Ben Schachter from UBS, believes that we'll have to wait and see whether or not the acquisition was a good move. While he does agree that the acquisition was a good one over the long term, he's concerned that the steep price may have some negative effects on the company's current financial state.

The console wars can get really ugly sometimes, but there's one party who benefits no matter where the blows land: the retailers. Lazard analyst Colin Sebastian believes that GameStop, the world's largest video game retailer, will be the "key beneficiary" of both hardware and software sales for the holiday season.

His first estimates of sales made by GameStop was US$ 1.41 billion but he raised the bar to US$ 1.42 billion. He also raised his predictions for total sales for the fiscal year from US$ 6.44 billion to US$ 6.5 billion. His predictions are based on the success of Halo 3 and the anticipation surrounding the release of Grand Theft Auto IV next year.

His estimates are also taken from the anticipation of a "healthy lineup" of games. Major releases he predicts will be an uber success for the video game industry are: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360, PS3, PC), Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360, PS3, PC), Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3) and Super Mario Galaxy. He also believes that the PlayStation 3 might introduce a price cut by the end of the year.

It looks like it's going to be a white Christmas this holiday season. Better warm those consoles up.